Trivia Chat Night

[livius drusus]

As discussed here (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=737), we figure it's high time we actually used that chatroom of ours for good instead of, well, nothing. A few people have declared themselves up for the game as early as tonight so I want to give the idea a little more visibility and see who all else is up for it and when.

I've got a shitload of Trivial Pursuit questions ready to roll (fact-checked, as per lisarea's orders), and a bunch of random questions I've stumbled on during link hopping expeditions, and some FF-specific trivia the answers to which can be found somewhere on the forum. Just call me MC Trivialix.

So, do we do teams or individuals? If teams do we just divide the people who show up or make our own? How much time do we have to answer a question? Do we have enough people ready and willing to play tonight or should we plan for next week? What else am I not thinking of?

[LadyShea]

I'll play. Maybe we can start informally, and work up to rules and tourney ladders and such if it takes off?

[livius drusus]

Sure, but what does informally mean? Someone shouts a question and we wait until someone gets it right? It seems to me some minimum procedures have to be in place or it'll be both chaotic and boring.

Oh, and what's a tourney ladder?

[One for Sorrow]

This sounds like fun. LadyShea's suggestion of starting off informally is a good one. Is a set time limit really necessary? The answer could just be revealed after people start to get frustrated with the question.

What time would it start?

[livius drusus]

Hmmm... After dinner, I'd say. Maybe 8 or 9?

[LadyShea]

Well for informal I would suggest the following

Individual rather than team play
A single moderator that asks all questions and times it and such
A reasonable time limit, say 45 seconds to answer
"Buzz in" to answer with a keystroke like a "!" so it's not an issue of the fastest typist


And a tourney ladder is like what you see in professional sports where you start off with a bunch of teams/players and have them play each other and eliminate the losers until you have like a championship or something. There are programs available for use in online gaming. We never have to get to that level, but if it takes off it might be fun

[livius drusus]

Well for informal I would suggest the following

Individual rather than team play
A single moderator that asks all questions and times it and such
A reasonable time limit, say 45 seconds to answer

Awesome. Works for me on all points.

And a tourney ladder is like what you see in professional sports where you start off with a bunch of teams/players and have them play each other and eliminate the losers until you have like a championship or something. There are programs available for use in online gaming. We never have to get to that level, but if it takes off it might be fun

Oh, duh, of course I've seen such things in practice many a time. I've even been involved in them via varsity sports, but for some reason I never heard the term "tourney ladder" before. You're right, that could be a real blast. Something to look forward to. :)

[Scotty]

GMT?

How about see who shows up, pick teams from the people that show up, give them 2-3 minutes to answer the question, hashing between themselves (others shouldn't comment at this time so they can hash the question) and then when they finally decide, they put out that it is their final answer.

An agreement to not search on-line should be set, although you can't guarantee that somebody will google away the answer. Possibly teams of 2 should be the highest, so that you have less chance to have one of many searching for answers.

After the 2-3 minute period (it could be longer, you know how it goes with chat stuff, and the slowness of the flash chat, or, less time to keep the potential of cheating down) and they don't have he correct answer, then what, another teams answers the question? I don't remember TP's rules.

Maybe, don't let somebody else answer the question, just shelve it and go on because other teams could look it up in the mean time. Use it the next time.

One person should give out the questions, of course, so they don't really play as moderate.

Are they all multiple choice questions? Open ended? How do you post multiple choice? Might be difficult.

Anyway, I suck at trivia, but if I am around I will try to play.

Also, set a time limit for the entire game, like 1 hour so that people can block that time and not let another team member down. Or, set it in 1/2 hour increments for teams, something. Then, pick the number of correct answers to win, with the moderator keeping track of that.

So, when the time is up, even if somebody hasn't "won" the correct number of answers, whoever has the most correct "wins". So 1/2 hour games, teams chosen to play for each 1/2 hour segment, first to 5 correct answers win? Team order of play decided by the moderator.

Okay, I am done.

Or, we could start an electoral college, and assign representatives for each state, then....

;)

-Scott

[LadyShea]

Scotty, good ideas, but 2-3 minutes is really an eternity in this situation...I wouldn't want more than a minute to answer

[Scotty]

The only reason I say that long, is because the chat tool isn't so responsive, and sitting and watching the screen waiting for a time to input (say, if I looked away, or went to the restroom or whatever, just daydreaming :) ), I wouldn't have time to answer. That is just me. BUT, that being said, a short time is good because of the opportunity to google it, and to keep gameplay fast.
Plus, if you used teams. If you didn't use teams, a faster time is better too.

Just a suggestion, I guess it would have to see how it worked (with the faster time to start off with) and see if people wanted more time overall. It may be best fast.

-Scott

[Farren]

My major concern is the trivial questions used. If they're literally from a trivia set questions about American or Scottish national pastimes from different sets might be opaque to members of other nationalities,

I'd be interested in variants on the game though. For instance, one that divides members into teams and gives each time five minutes to investigate (google) the answers, furiously communicating in their private chat room. Clever questions would require further inference froim information avaible on the web the stringing together of avalable facts to get the corrent answer.

Something along those lines might be fun, especially with teamplay.

[livius drusus]

That's an interesting idea, Farren, and I like it a lot. My main concern is in how we'd go about scaring up sufficiently killer questions.

[LadyShea]

Maybe just have people submit questions, at the same time looking to outside sources such as trivia books, websites, and other online trivia games. Then just make a big spreadsheet you can copy and paste from. You like that stuff anyway liv ;)

[Farren]

Another suggestion which probably deserves its own, seperate thread is thing. A friend and I have been wanting to set up some kind of simple boardgame (a la Risk) via php/java and a small database. But we lack a server at the mo.

It could be a quick and dirty or a more drawn out affair where you review the state of you nation and conduct a low insensity war over a few weeks before the winner emergese. We were thinking something bizarre, such as launching kitchen sinks and diseased cows at each other and starting Murchoch-owned news sources in each other's countries to increase prodctivity or cause hippy riots..

Would anyone be interested. This kind of stuff is right up my street.

[Farren]

That's an interesting idea, Farren, and I like it a lot. My main concern is in how we'd go about scaring up sufficiently killer questions.

We could lay out guidelines for the questions, e.g.

1. Most of the information must be widely avaiable on the internet from reputable sources.
2. Reputable, for our purposes, implies....
3. Questions may be formulated by discovering a relationship between certian well known facts, such as the colour of a favourate horse, then presented in the form "What preference did Napolean, Wellington and Ghengis Kahn share in terms of their mode of transport"
4. Questions may also take the form...

that kind of thing, maybe.

[livius drusus]

Would anyone be interested. This kind of stuff is right up my street.

I doubt I'd play it, but I'm sure you'd find many who would. Definitely another thread, though.

[livius drusus]

We could lay out guidelines for the questions, e.g.

1. Most of the information must be widely avaiable on the internet from reputable sources.
2. Reputable, for our purposes, implies....
3. Questions may be formulated by discovering a relationship between certian well known facts, such as the colour of a favourate horse, then presented in the form "What preference did Napolean, Wellington and Ghengis Kahn share in terms of their mode of transport"
4. Questions may also take the form...

that kind of thing, maybe.

Oy, Farren. I think that would be biting off a helluva lot more than we could chew at this point. It even sounds a little more like school than play.

I definitely want to be sure we're not excessively Americanocentric and I like the idea of allowing searches, at least for some questions. The FF trivia, for instance, is going to require searches unless there's someone else as anal as I am in the house, and let's face it: that ain't likely.

What if we included some complex, searchable questions along with the snappier ones? We could extend the time limit just for them.

[Socratoad]

I've never used chat here and actually l am not quite up to playing. my question is: can people just lurk or whatever to watch/ listen to these games? Cuz it sounds like fun.

[dave_a]

I've never used chat here and actually l am not quite up to playing. my question is: can people just lurk or whatever to watch/ listen to these games? Cuz it sounds like fun.

I am not in charge, but I can't see why you couldn't observe. I certainly would have no objection whatsoever.

Anyway, dunno if I can participate or not, but if this is happening what time?

Please include the time zone or GMT offset for the time.

[livius drusus]

Sure you can observe, Toad. The main room is always open to everyone.

About the time, I was suggesting 8 or 9 EST, but at this point I'm thinking we need to plan for next weekend instead of tonight just to ensure we have enough people to make it a game worth playing.

[SharonDee]

So? How did it go?

Did it go?

[Roland98]

What if we included some complex, searchable questions along with the snappier ones? We could extend the time limit just for them.

Just remember when you're thinking about time limits that some of us are on stinky dial-up. :fuming:

[Goliath]

Sorry I wasn't able to make it to the game...I had waaaay too much stuff to do.

:tired:

[livius drusus]

It's okay, Sharon and Goliath; it didn't happen last night. We'll work out the details this week and aim for next Sunday. I'll also set up a dynamic announcement to draw in the people who might have missed this thread.

[Ensign Steve]

Yay! I didn't miss it. Can someone call me and remind me? *shudder*

[pescifish]

We'll work out the details this week and aim for next Sunday. I'll also set up a dynamic announcement to draw in the people who might have missed this thread.How's that aim of yours? :bullseye:

Since I don't give a flying patootey about trivia, I'm just glad there's a few of us in there enjoying a very nice spot of conversation.

[livius drusus]

I'm a dumbass and forgot. I'm sorry, y'all.

[dave_a]

I'm a dumbass and forgot. I'm sorry, y'all.

I think most of us forgot, but I am content to blame you.

[pescifish]

Seems like a resounding success to me! There are folks in here and we are having fun. :)